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Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

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Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#31

Post by wuest »

homosaur wrote: post #10
TheCapn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have it in their heads that a successful petition is supposed to mean there will be change but that was never promised. I've always felt petitions were used by lawmakers to help filter noise. If you set a threshold for the amount of support any cause needs before you'll address it (preventing you from having to listen to each person individually) the petition system seems only logical. If the lawmakers now see…

Filter noise? You mean like concerns of citizens instead of concerns of lobbyists? A Kickstarter might be more useful than a petition in getting the attention of the US government.

I'd chip in.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#32

Post by bluedanieru »

znowi wrote: post #25

A mere fact that there's a White House petition for something that in other countries is an indefeasible right - use your phone with any carrier you please - greatly saddens me. I find it astonishing how the Land of the Free can tolerate such treatment.

There's a reason you had to capitalize it.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#33

Post by betterunix »

pyre wrote: post #13
manaskarekar wrote: post #7

It's funny how you have to petition to have lawmakers pay attention to an issue, when by definition, those people are there to represent the interest of the majority in the first place.

Since when is the President a 'lawmaker?' If you want to get law-makers (i.e. legislators) to take notice just write your representative a letter.

Since at least 1970, when the Controlled Substances Act gave the executive branch of government the power to declare drugs illegal without involving Congress.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#35

Post by mmanfrin »

riggins wrote: post #24
adrr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all 100k people chipped in a $100, it would have more effect than this petition. We live in a time where it takes money to get elected.

If all 100k people chipped in a $100 I've actually thought for some time this is an area the tech community could make a positive impact addressing the inefficiency of a small focused interest prevailing against a much larger, but unfocused public interest. Thinking more like if 100M people contributed $1 to fund politicians that protect the public interest.

I've been tossing around an idea of setting up a small PAC dedicated to tech issues. It would rate legislators on their stances on issues like net neutrality, patent reform, etc. Additionally, it would have a campaign fund, and each election cycle it would target the most egregiously bad legislators with that campaign fund.

I've written some of the code -- but since that time I've learned a lot more so I will probably scrap what I have to rebuild.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#36

Post by speeder »

breckenedge wrote: post #29
speeder wrote: post #12

This is something that I like in Brazillian laws, in Brazil carriers are supposed to always provide "portability", this mean that you can keep your phone numbers when you change your carrier. The "portability" laws, also say that the carriers themselves have to unlock your phones if you want to change carrier. This ensures that a carrier cannot make you locked to them by using phone lock or number lock. It is highly…

In the US, we also get to port our numbers to new carriers. It's been this way for a while. Do Brazilian carriers offer contract-subsidized phones? Many carriers here will unlock your phone once your contract is complete. See AT&T's unlock details at [1] [1] https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/

Yes, a lot actually, in fact carriers here are infamous for offering phones even for free depending on the contract, resulting into one carrier once making a ad, saying that their bonuses for long term costumers were cash, because "paying" with phones was silly.

But the law says that if the costumer want to end his contract, then he will pay his fines or whatever, but the carrier must unlock the phone.

Also you see "unlocking stores" frequently on metro stations for example, it is perfectly legal, and encouraged by the government, to incentive some free market between carriers (here we have 4 big GSM carriers, some people even own prepaid GSM chips of all of them).

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#37

Post by betterunix »

analyst74 wrote: post #34

OK, something I don't understand. What's to stop someone from opening a store that sells unlocked phones? Is it because of the lack of carrier discount? If that's the case, people have already voted with their money on what they value more.

"people have already voted with their money on what they value more"

1. We do not vote with money in America. Poor people get as much of a vote as rich people in this country.

2. By making jailbreaking illegal, the government is giving carriers a special legal status that makes it harder for anyone else to compete. If you want a market-based solution to life's problems, you cannot have the government swoop in and give special privilege to certain players.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#38

Post by StavrosK »

breckenedge wrote: post #29
speeder wrote: post #12

This is something that I like in Brazillian laws, in Brazil carriers are supposed to always provide "portability", this mean that you can keep your phone numbers when you change your carrier. The "portability" laws, also say that the carriers themselves have to unlock your phones if you want to change carrier. This ensures that a carrier cannot make you locked to them by using phone lock or number lock. It is highly…

In the US, we also get to port our numbers to new carriers. It's been this way for a while. Do Brazilian carriers offer contract-subsidized phones? Many carriers here will unlock your phone once your contract is complete. See AT&T's unlock details at [1] [1] https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/

In Greece, all carriers offer subsidies for most phones (some are even free with a plan), and every single phone is unlocked. It makes no sense for them to sell locked phones, since you can't get out of paying your dues for the duration of the contract anyway.

The lock-in is in the contract, not the phone, so locking the phone as well is unnecessary.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#39

Post by kunle »

analyst74 wrote: post #34

OK, something I don't understand. What's to stop someone from opening a store that sells unlocked phones? Is it because of the lack of carrier discount? If that's the case, people have already voted with their money on what they value more.

Many stores carry unlocked phones, but the locking of phones and the discount are specifically linked. You can buy an unlocked, unsubsidized phone from any carrier, but if you buy it on contract, it will likely be locked.

Not entirely sure this applies across ALL carriers, but it does apply to ATT/Sprint/TMO I believe.

Re: Petition to make unlocking phones legal again passes 100,000 signatures

#40

Post by btilly »

pessimizer wrote: post #27
pyre wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when is the President a 'lawmaker?' If you want to get law-makers (i.e. legislators) to take notice just write your representative a letter.

As the guy who signs bills into law, and as the head of his party (meaning that he dictates how they are going to be whipped) he is lawmaker number 1.

The President is not the head of the party (Debbie Wasserman Schultz is to the extent that the position exists), nor is he in charge of whipping people (for the Democrats that's Steny Hoyer right now).

He admittedly does have a huge bully pulpit. A defined legislative role. And he does personally lean on representatives. But the US has absolutely nothing equivalent to the organization and party discipline that countries. And "President" is an individually elected position by the country, and has no particular relation to his party other than "(very prominent) member".

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